A/N Thanks for the review. Hopefully this is quick enough.

Chapter 18: Lessons from the Cinema

"How much longer will it be?" Peter asked anxiously, from the tree stump that the marauders were standing behind. They were facing a very large and rather creaky willow tree, that seemed to sway constantly, even though there was no sign of a breeze that night.

Though Emily could only see his back from the bushes where she had hidden herself, she could tell that Peter's face was lit with an expectant and eager smile.

"Wait Wormtail." James said with a slight snigger. "They only just went in, Madame Pompfrey'll be a while coming out."

"She always is." Sirius added. "Besides, you don't want to miss the fun do you?"

Sirius's voice held a vicious kind of anticipation.

"What fun?" Peter asked stupidly. She saw Sirius turn to him and shoot a disbelieving glance.

"Oh." Peter said with newfound comprehension. "Yeah. Wouldn't wanna miss that."

"Miss what?" James asked feigning innocence. Though Emily could tell that he was rubbing his hands together nervously.

"You'll see." Sirius said casually.

There was a tiny thought in her mind that he might not do it. James might just let Snape follow Remus into the tree. He might not even make the effort to save him.

Well, she had worked out what to do if he didn't. She would just have to do it herself.

Yes, a true modern heroine probably would have just done it herself to begin with. But, after that little display with Lilly Evans back in the castle, James did need a bit of a confidence boost. Surely it would not be wrong to let him play the hero just this once.

They did not wait in silence long before Severus Snape came sneaking up the hill.

"Wait for it..." Sirius whispered with quiet anticipation as Snape hesitated at the trunk of the tree and picked up a very long stick.

The trees branches waved almost threateningly as if giving Snape a warning not to come any closer. It seemed ridiculous that a tree could give a warning. But then again many things in this world seemed ridiculous to Emily, and it didn't make them any less true.

Severus was looking at the tree with an extreme amount of caution as if afraid that if he took another step the tree just might attack. Slowly, he reached the stick out at arms length and began prodding the trunk of the tree.

Suddenly one of the tree's limbs reached down and made a vast swatting motion. Snape jumped back just in time as the long thorny limb came crashing down two feet away from where he stood. Emily heard Sirius and Peter let out soft sniggers of amusement.

Once the branch swung back into place on the tree, Snape prodded the trunk again, this time in another direction. He jumped back as if expecting another branch to come down swinging at him. However, this time the tree seemed to freeze in place, it's colour turning from wood to a marble like gray.

"Here it comes..." Sirius whispered eagerly as Snape seemed to find an open passage at the bottom of the tree trunk. Cautiously, he stepped into the open passage and, soon, slipped out of sight.

"And there he goes!" Sirius said triumphantly. "I just wish I could see the look on that little creep's face when he sees Moony...Prongs? You all right mate?"

Emily could see James wringing his hands in hesitation, and she could tell that he was pursing his lips. Then, suddenly without warning, James tore himself from his hiding spot and followed Snape's lead down to the trunk of the tree.

"Prongs? What...?!" Sirius began to yell after his friend, but to now avail. James had already disappeared down the passage way.

"Come on." Sirius said to Peter as he began to head towards the trunk of the whomping willow. Peter however, stayed behind.

"But-but what if tree starts up again?" Peter asked in a high pitched voice.

"Don't be such a whimp wormtail!" Sirius said frantically to Peter who was now stepping backward hesitantly.

"Look, if it does you can just transform and press the knot again, all right?"

Something told Emily that she didn't want to know what "transform" meant.

Finally Peter consented with a nod, and both of them began their descent into the passageway.

Emily made sure that they were both safely out of sight before running to the willow and entering the passageway herself. (If she left James unsupervised after all, there was no telling what he'd do.)

"James!" She heard Sirius call as she followed the sounds of his and Peter's feet around the corners of the tunnel. It had not occurred to her that it was going to be much more difficult to remain hidden while inside the passageway. Emily in fact, assumed that it was due to mere luck that Peter and Sirius hadn't noticed the sounds of footsteps following them into the cave.

"Prongs?!" Sirius shouted once more. Apparently Snape and James were already too far ahead to answer.

"Oh, this is ridiculous!" Sirius muttered as he hit his head on a very low arch of rocks in the cave.

He stopped walking and stood very still. A moment later Sirius had disappeared and in his place stood an enormous black dog.

This was far too much for Emily to take in.

Without thinking, she let out a very audible and quite resounding (the cave walls seemed to echo), high-pitched squeak. At which the dog and Peter swiftly turned around to find Emily covering her mouth with her hand and openly gaping at the large black dog standing where Sirius had been less than a minuet ago.

"Gardner?!" Peter said his eyes just as wide and fearful as hers had been. The dog let out a low, and quite clearly agitated growl.

"What- did he...?" Was all Emily managed to say before.

"SNAPE!"

Peter and the dog took off at a run to follow the sound of James's voice. Emily, though still in quite a state of shock managed to follow at their heels.

"Potter!" Emily heard Snape say as the three began to draw nearer the other two voices. (The shouting of surnames was becoming a bit redundant.)

"Now why on earth would I listen to you?" Snape asked quite silkily, his wand pointed at an obviously locked door at the end of the tunnel.

"Trying to keep our little friend's secret are we?" Snape gave a menacing sneer.

"Prongs? What's going on?" Peter was beginning to round the corner. Before following, the large dog stopped in his tracks and reared his head at Emily before transforming back into Sirius.

He simply glared at Emily for a moment before saying exasperatedly,

"Come on."

With that he turned the corner to follow Peter, Emily now thoroughly confused, running in his wake.

"Ahh." Snape said, a bright sneer lighting his face as he saw Peter and Sirius turn the corner. "So I see I'm not the only one that's interested in what's behind this door."

"I'm warning you..." James said whipping out his own wand.

"So I've heard." Snape said coldly, wand still pointed at the door.

"Let's find out what it is you'd rather I not see, shall we?" With one last sneer he raised his wand.

"Alohamor-"But Snape never got the chance to finish. At that moment James threw his wand down to the floor and lunged after Snape grabbing him by the waist and throwing him to the wall of the passageway, two feet safely away from the door.

At that moment a long, painful sounding cry came from inside the room.

Peter backed away hurriedly.

Sirius stayed rooted to his spot beside the wall.

Snape, still carrying his own wand, looked more eager to open the door than he had before, and was currently struggling against James's hold on him.

Emily, however, for one reason or another seemed drawn to the wand that James had dropped on the ground. She walked over to it and began examining it, as if entranced.

James turned around to look at the spot where he had lost his wand, and spied her, apparently for the first time.

"Emily! What the bloody hell are you doing here?!"

But as Emily lifted her head to answer him, she was met with the image of Severus Snape raising his wand to the back of James's neck. Somehow, she was reminded vaguely of a film she had seen once, where the hero asked the exact same question of his companion before having his head blown off.

Well that was not going to happen this time. One thing she had learned from the cinemas: a heroine must do everything she possibly can to save a likeable character's life,(After all, she just might win an oscar for it later).

So, without thinking, Emily picked up James's wand, pointed it at Snape and, (for the second time that day), said the first thing that came to her head.

"Expeliarmus" She shouted loudly.

Much to the astonishment of everyone in the room, Snape's wand flew twelve feet into the air, and landed at Emily's feet.

The boys stood gaping at her. Finally, Peter said:

"But you're a muggle. How did you...?" Unfortunately for all involved, excluding Emily, (who did not fancy the idea of not knowing the answer to how she was able to perform magic without being magical), the door burst open to reveal a rather stern and motherly looking woman with brown hair and wearing nurse's robes.

"What's going on hear?" She demanded looking from Peter and Sirius, who were still gawking at Emily holding James's wand, to James and Snape (who was craning his neck to peek into the room behind her.)

"Well?" The nurse demanded again.

Emily felt all eyes immediately land on her, as if they all expected her to explain the entire story.

The truth was, Emily was far too confused herself to explain anything to anyone. Still, it was clear that she was going to have to do something.

Another classic cinema heroine antic quickly popped into her mind. It wasn't much, but it was the only thing Emily could think of at the moment. It would have to do.

So, with one last wide eyed frightened look at the nurse, she let out a heavy pre-fainting spell sigh, put her hand to her head, and allowed herself to, gracefully fall down to the floor in.

Immediately she felt a pair of hands lifting her off the ground and begin carrying her out of the passageway.

Who said you couldn't learn anything from the cinemas.

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